To me TS2 holds a special place in my heart because I've played it for years starting with the console game and 'Sims Life Stories'. When I got the 'Sims 2 Double Deluxe' as a gift for getting good grades in school I was enthralled with how I could do whatever I wanted to, with more opportunities laid out to me .

When I got the chance to play TS3 (after begging my mom to shell out $60) I was a little disappointed by how the game turned out. Don't get me wrong, I loved it at first, but it dissolved after a while because it was /too much/ stuff for me to handle, and it did overwhelm me. And because our family computer was old it couldn't handle the open world and the customization tools, so then I went back to 2.

I got the chance to play TS4 for free with the 48-hour trial and I was more disappointed than I was with 3; I couldn't get past the low poly count and the general lack of everything 2 and 3 presented, so I again went back to 2. I keep close tabs on TS4 and all the news I hear about the game turns me off more than before .

I hope I don't inadvertently offend anyone with this. TS3 and TS4 have their pros and cons, but I'm still gonna play TS2 until I'm 90 years old. With all the problems with TS3 and polarized feedback circulating TS4 I'm content with playing this game, vanilla and modded .

That sentence reminds me, but can't remember clearly of a clever quote W.Wright had said (I believe) about The Sims as a whole. I only remember clearly that he "finds [it] not as a game", and other part something along the lines ", but as a tool". Probably is not the closest I can pick up from my memory, so I probably will update this comment once I remember what he clearly had said.

My best friend likes to torment me by saying the Sims 2 isn't a real game. But it's okay, because I put his Sim into a maid dress.

He made the distinction between games and toys - the quote is the sims is a toy not a game. Toys are something you play with and create stuff in your head, games have rules and an eventual pre-determined goal. It's the same difference when you were a kid between playing with lego and playing a game like Cleudo or Monopoly.

Could be that he used that analogy, which I do agree that The Sims Series in general are as toys: you play with it however you want it. Just that from TS2, as time goes pass each new version lacks an attribute or two that limits the possibilities. Kind of like each new lego set/sequal misses a piece that makes it hardly possible to build specific things, like green blocks for 'terraforming' so to speak.

Some of Maxis' earlier software (SimTown, Widget Workshop, etc) had a "Software Toys For Kids" logo: http://www.mobygames.com/game/simto...CoverId,211218/

My best friend is a TS2 Sim! :lovestruc:

Yep that's it. Sims 1 and 2 were toys, not "games". Starting with Sims 3 they started to include more and more traditional game elements (quests, unlocking pre-defined goals).

I almost forgot... BABIES! Yeah, babies are so much cuter and awesome in TS2. Just so that's said.

While vanilla TS2 babies may not be as interesting as older sims, I've found several ways to make them more interesting via CC. And they've got the cutest little smiles and animations if you just get them going, particularly with the addition of the baby toys.

TS3 babies - couldn't care less. They're boring, just lay there, barely even move at all unless they cry. Even in the baby toys they eventually got they didn't do much else than before (I don't think they did). TS4 babies are sort of cute, but look like aliens compared to the older sims. The whole stuck to the crib and their clothes being part of their skin also bothers me to no end. It's like a slightly upgraded 3D version of the TS1 babies.

Unless you have bad CC, in which case they turn into Lovecraftian monsters.

It's even better in TS4! Isn't he just adorable?

He has a face that only a mother could love, if she happened to be blind.

I have a Sims 2 hood with over 200 families in it. I have added subhoods to that, which means that I also have a retirement hood and a farming hood besides Bluewater Village attached to the main hood. I am at the 4th generation, where the great grandchildren of the original bin Sims are off to school. Tell me how you can do that in Sims 3 and Sims 4 (I have both. I can't remember when I last played 3. I started 4 the last time when the toddlers came out) - but tell me that, and I may be interested in a discussion.

Plus - everything that Jo says.

I have actually forced myself to do that in Sims 3, but I'll readily admit that a lot of fast forwarding, macroing and just plain being bored was involved. I wanted to see where the world would go and how it would develop, but honestly, it did get very boring after a while.

I can get behind that.

My hood is NOT boring at all I have been playing it for around 4 years now, and I will have to go into mourning for a year if something happens to it.

As for me, 2 is the toy that I wanted to have when I was 8 years old.

That Christmas I got a game named "Thimble City" which had a playboard, small statues of cars and people with magnets on them, plastic houses and buildings. Using a magnet attached to a stick of wood to move the pieces I used to crash the cars into the buildings and make them run over people.

It was hysterically fun for me.

This game is that kind of fun, but on a computer. (nobody ever gets run over by a player owned car..though). And more unscripted at times.

(I was a very lonely child).

The only functional things I really wish I had in my TS2 game from TS3 is the background environment (aka open neighborhood esthetics), strollers, bikes and horses. Occasionally I also miss the color wheel. Other than that I'm more or less happy with TS2 as it is.

From TS4 there's little to nothing I miss that can't already be modded into TS2 or works better there. It would be nice if TS2 neighborhoods could have looked a little more like the on-lot TS4 view (as in, neighboring lots don't look like cardboard drawings - but not the awful neighborhood lot picking view), and I do like some of how the toddlers were handled (not that it took them an age and a half for EA to add them, though), possibly a few other small things - but I don't miss the things much.

Quite honestly, I'm more likely to be annoyed when playing TS3 or TS4 because I miss things from TS2 - particularly the animations. While there are a few stupid animations in TS2, there are so many more in 3 and 4. Silly walks, pocket-vehicles with barely one pose/animations, and everything feels so overdone.

The idles are also very annoying in 3+4. They can be a little bothersome in TS2 when you want the sim to do anything but idles, but they don't look as arteficial. I've got a TS2 sim who'll sometimes read while walking around the house, and her husband loves playing with the rubics cube logic toy. I see it as part of their personality. I've got sims who'll show they're bored (looking at their fingernails, etc.) when standing around waiting for a command (I mostly play with free will off), and I love how even toddlers and babies will look around and follow the person with their eyes when a sim walk past. It makes them feel more alive and aware. I'm not too fond of speech/thought bubbles, but I really like how even babies will occasionally think of a family member. Even dogs seem to notice babies. It's like all the sims are connected in a way, and are part of the same environment. I don't get the same feeling with 3 and 4. Sure, the sims will interact, but not in the same way. It's almost like they won't quite notice other sims unless they interact, and if they do they'll just stare creepily at them.

I grew up with sims 2 in my life. The last 1 1/2 year I've only just got to know to mods and so on, ways to improve the games graphics and that!
After all those mods and graphic changes Sims 2 is a very amazing game to play!

For me, there is no comparison between the two games. Even after the addition of toddlers, I have not felt compelled to play TS4 as I do not derive enjoyment from it. TS4's gameplay seems too focused on memes and over-the-top goofiness than providing any actual depth. What I love about TS2 is that when combined with the modding community and the original programming of the game, you can make your game as serious or as goofy as you want it to be. With TS4, I feel as if I am pigeon-holed into playing a certain playstyle. Perhaps that will change over time, but in either case I have no interest in trying to make the game work for me when TS2 gives me everything that I want.

TS3 was fun for me as well and I derived many years of enjoyment from it, but the ultimate dealbreaker was the glitchiness of the game itself paired with the pudding texture of the sims that I just couldn't seem to effectively mod out, plus the genetics were a hot mess (even with my TS3 sims' lord and savior Twallan, the genetics left much to be desired). TS2's graphics may be "outdated" but I still think it's a beautiful game, especially when modded to oblivion I'm none too fond of TS4's graphics either...even on the highest settings the textures look blurry and cartoon-ish (to me).

As with others here have indicated, I am extremely biased so please take my opinions with a grain of salt. If you truly wish to see if TS4 is the game for you, find some TS4 simmers on youtube and watch their playstyles and see if they mirror what you want to achieve with the game. TS4 is a good game for many I'm sure, but the only thing I could 10000% assure you is that it is not TS2. Now, whether that means TS4 is better or worse than TS2 is purely a matter of what you're looking for in your Sims games.

I never really liked how the sims looked in 3. They look as if they were made out of Play-doh,the graphics are too oversaturated and from time to time it likes to slow down and freeze up. If EA and Maxis would stop getting greedy and lazy and just make a proper sequel that wouldn't upset so many loyal fans and combined the best parts of Sims 2 and 3 while making a functional open world that doesn't freeze and lag up then Sims 4 wouldn't get that much hate. I mean they could have just made it so that you could visit your next door without encountering another loading screen and it's almost been 4 years and Sims 4 still doesn't have burglars and firefighters. I know that you could become a police officer on the GTW expansion pack and yet there still aren't any burglars. I mean how lazy could you possibly as a video game company to leave out the most basic things that should be in a life simulator and if stuff like this continues to happen then i'm afraid what Sims 5 would be like if they are making one. I'll just stick with Sims 2 and 3 until they decide to make a better Sims game or when they decide to start making worthwhile content for Sims 4. But if I have to choose then it would have to be Sims 2 because it has some of the best radio soundtracks in the whole series and the sims actually act like real human beings. I bet if I really think about it then I might be able to list a hundred things that I think Sims 2 does better than 4 but I just don't the time and patience for any of that so I'll just leave it there.

Just tagging on to repeat the common theme: Sims 4 looks nice enough, the simulation engine under the hood is a garbage fire.

Although I think they fixed the 'autonomous incest' issue pretty fast.

hurp durp welllll I don't have 4 and prolly never will! *slurps out of my capri sun*

This says it all for me really.



Seriously, what colour do you call that skin? Sims in Sims 4 look all blurry and pale - just weird.

It looks like an alien baby. But what's with the dead eyes? DX